Product and process of manufacturing a product having the properties of soap.



GRIGORI PETROFF, 0F PETROGRAD, RUSSIA, ASSIGNOR TO AKTIONS COMPANY KONTAKT, OF PETROGRAD, RUSSIA.

PRODUCT AND PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING A PRODUCT HAVING THE PROPERTIES 0F SOAP.

1,196,234, Specification of Letters Patent.

No Drawing. Application filed July 25, 1913.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, Gniooni Pnrnorr, a subject of the Czar of Russia, residing at 23 Pesotchnaia ulitza, Petrograd, Russia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Product and Process of Manufacturing a Product Having the Properties of Soap, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved product and process for the production of detergents and detergent emulsions.

Animal or vegetable fats and oils have been hitherto chiefly used as raw material for the manufacture of soap. Sometimes naphthenic acids or resin, or colophony have been partly used for the same purpose. I have now found that sulfur containing compounds produced by treating mineral oil hydrocarbons, crude petroleum, its heavv lubricating distillates, lubricating mineral oils and the like with sulfuric acid and separating with the aid of suitable solvents, for example, ethyl or methyl alcohol or acetone from the unattacked hydrocarbon, the material formed by the action of the sulfuric acid upon the constituents of the hydrocarbon mixture treated and which materials are herein referred to as sulfonic acids obtained from sulfonated mineral oils, may also be employed as raw material for producing a detergent which, similar to ordinary soap made of fats and oils, is well adapted for washing purposes and for replacing ordinary soap in many branches of industry and in the household. Such a soap substitute has nothing in common with so-called naphtha soaps which consist exclusively of salts of naphthenic acids. Further the new soap substitute has the substantial advantage over naphtha soap, in that it does not possess the obnoxious odor frequently associated with such soaps. In regardto detergent capacity it is in no way inferior to good brands of soaps made from fat. For the preparation of a detergent, thetsaid sulfonic acids are mixed in aqueous or alcoholic aqueous solution in the cold or with Warming with carbonic or caustic alkalis or ammonia. According to the conditions, neutral acid or alkaline solutions of salts of the sulfonic acids are obtained, fro-m which neutral, acid or alkaline solutions, the greater part of the solvent may be re- Serial No. 781,170.

moved by means of a current of air, or the solution of salts may be boiled until the desired degree of concentration is attained. According to the particular treatment employed a hard or semi-liquid gelatinous substance is obtained, comparable to hard or soft soap. The sulfonic acids used as raw material may be employed either in a pure state or mixed with fats, fatty oils and fatty acids.

In contradistinction to ordinary soap, the product manufactured in accordance with the improved process from sulfonic acids does not form any deposit with lime or magnesium salts and therefore lathers well even when used with sea water or hard water.

The inventor has further established that the washing capacity is not restricted to the alkali salts of the sulfonic acids alone, but that said capacity is being possessed by the sulfonic acids themselves in their pure state. Soaps, prepared from such sulfonic acids possess advantages as compared with ordinary soap or with soaps prepared 'rom naphthenic acids or from sulfonated fatoils, for instance from sulfo-castor-oil acids (Turkey red oil). The main advantage of sulfo-acid soap is that it can vbe used both either in acid solutions or in alkali and neutral solutions. Their alkali salts in aqueous solutions do not undergo the character of hydrolytio decomposition such as takes place with ordinary soaps, hence the sulfonic acid soaps remain neutral while ordinary soaps have an alkaline reaction' The sulfonic acid. soaps formed as described dissolve in hard waters without forming deposits, and this water soluble characteristic of the product renders it available for many commercial uses other than deter gent, its soap-like properties, however, afford an identifying basis enabling the distinct new product to be definitely defined.

To enable others to definitely carry on this process and producethe product, the following directions will sufiice, although I do not thereby desire to be limited to the relative proportions indicated. The sulfonic acid formed by sulfonating mineral oils, from which the sludge has been removed, is apt to be mixed with or to some extent dissolved in unattacked portions of the mineral oil. This mineral oil sulfonic acid material is mixed with an alkali and a solvent in Patented Aug. 29, T916.

which the sulfonic acid or its alkali compound is readily soluble, and in which any unattackcd portions of the mineral oil is relatively insoluble. The result is that the sulfonic acid combines with the alkali in a non-oily solution, and the solvent being volatile, can readily be driven off by heat or distillation, producing a substantially oil free alkaline sulfonated mineral oil product.

For producing a neutral product,a fourteen (14) to sixteen (16) per cent. solution of about 11.4 kilograms of caustic potash or soda, or carbonate of ammonium, is mixed with, say 100 kilograms of aqueous alcohol solution of the sult'onic acid, the solution containing approximately say fifty (50) per cent. of sulfonic acid. The amount of alkali can be increased or decreased, approximately at, or on either side of the neutral, depending upon whether a slightly alkaline. acid, or neutral product is desired. Any excess oil present with the sulfonic material treated will not go into the aqueous solution with the sulfonic material, and so the solution can be separated from undissolved oil, and the neutral sulfonic product can be separated very easily, by volatilizing off the solvent. In this way Iproduce a very pure,

substantially oil free, alkali sulfonic product from mineral oils, having distinctly new properties and valuable commercial uses.

Having described my invention, I claim: 1. A process for producing a sulfonic material having soap-like properties, which consists in mixing sult'onic acids formed by sulfonating mineral oils with an alkali and a solvent in which the sulfonic-alkali compound is readily soluble and in which unattacked portions of the mineral oil are relatively insoluble, and separating the said compound from its solvent.

2. In a process for producing a material having soap-like properties, the steps comprising treating with an alkali and an aqueous alcohol solution, sulfonic acids formed by sulfonating mine 'al oils.

3. A sulfonated mineral oil sulfonic-alkali compound having soap-like properties characterized by solubility in hard water with- 

